Just An Accident
by DaDonut
Summary: He honestly didn't know how a pink-haired girl could affect him so much. Seriously, who makes a first impression by tripping over her own feet? GaaraXSakura. Please read and review!
1. Chapter 1

This story takes place after Sakura saves Kankuro's life, but Sakura and Gaara never meet

Prologue:

He sighed, and stretched his aching arms and legs. He took a few deep breaths. Then he looked out of his tower window and gazed upon Suna. Sunagakure…. Village of the Hidden Sand. The village that he had grown up in. Tortured, and lonely. The village, that he had grown to eventually love and protect. The village, of which he is the Kazekage of.

The village that was under attack.

As he contemplated the village and the attacks, he came to a conclusion. Since Konohagakure is under attack, and that his own village is under attack by the same enemy, he decided that they should start village negotiations. After all, Konoha was a powerful village with large influence on the neighboring countries, and also for the fact that they have a fellow jinchuriki that understands him. Gaara considers Naruto a friend, if not, a good friend.

Nodding quietly to himself, he settled down onto his chair, took out a scroll, and wrote a letter to the current Hokage of Konoha, which happened to be Tsunade. It was not a long and lengthy letter, but brief. He then performed the hand signs necessary for sealing the scroll. This was because he knew that once the Hokage agreed to it, they would have to start sending ninja back and forth, because the information was to valuable to be destroyed, or replicated.

He sighed and rubbed his forehead. Negotiations were long and complicated, taking many weeks or even months.

A quiet knock on the door distracted him from his thoughts. "Come in" he said. His sister opened the door. "Temari. Right on time." Temari smiled slightly at her brother's unusually good mood. "Hello, little brother. What is the favor?". Gaara handed her the scroll. Temari glanced at it, then back to him. "How many days do I have?". "10 days. I trust that you will be able to get the message there and the answer back in time?"

Temari nodded. She looked more carefully at the scroll. "This is about the attacks isn't it?" Gaara nodded slightly, and said no more. Temari carefully put the scroll in her side pouch. She retreated out the door. "Temari…" she hesitated. Looked back. "Be safe." She smiled softly at her little brother, and then closed the door.

End of prologue

Story:

Village negotiations were underway. Both Suna and Konoha selected some of their most elite ninja to deliver the messages and special documents. Sakura Haruno stood proudly beside Nara Shikamaru, glad to have been picked as one of the village's ambassador. Tsunade sighed, massaging her temple. Then she handed Sakura two documents.

"Ok, here's the deal. These are two very important documents. One of them contains the terms of the negotiation. This, you will have to discuss with the Kazekage. This might take up to 4 days, possibly a week. Can I be sure that you will discuss fair ones? Ones that will benefit both for Suna and Konoha?" "Yes Tsunade-Sama!" Sakura and Shikamaru said in unison.

"Alright. This second document contains classified information about the rogue group that had attacked us. You are not allowed know too much about this information. Here is the briefing. Their name is the Akatsuki. Their symbol is a red cloud. Whenever you see a stranger wearing black robes with the red clouds on them, avoid contact with any of them. They are very powerful rogue ninja from all over the ninja world. A very important and potentially deadly information is…" Tsunade leaned forward, and whispered " Uchiha Itachi is part of the organization" Sakura gasped and covered her mouth. Shikamaru's eyes widened slightly.

Sakura said quietly under her breath "Sasuke-kun…" Shikamaru sighed, "Troublesome… if Itachi is really part of that organization, then we have to do everything not to let Sasuke find out." Tsunade shook her head grimly. "Either way, back to the negotiations. I trust you can come back with the answers in the time span of 2 weeks?" Sakura and Shikamaru nodded.

"Good. Now shoo. I have to think about how to use this information." Sakura and Shikamaru bowed, and then retreated out the door. "6:00 am tomorrow, sharp" Sakura declared in an official voice. Shikamaru groaned, "You're even worse than Asuma-sensei… This is so troublesome…" Sakura just rolled her eyes at her partner's lazy antics.

"Fine then, 7:00 am tomorrow, sharp." Shikamaru frowned, but said "That's slightly better." Sakura snapped "If you keep complaining, I'll move it to 5:00 am!" Shikamaru refrained himself from groaning and rolling his eyes. Instead, he said "Geez, you really know how to get a lazy guy moving. Threatening to take away my sleeping time."

Sakura scoffed. "Its good for you. Now, I have to go pack. You'll take one document, and I'll take the other. Tomorrow, 7:00 am sharp alright?" Shikamaru grumbled quietly but didn't say anything else. They parted ways. Sakura decided to go back to her apartment to prepare herself for the oncoming mission, while Shikamaru was invited to have yet another barbecue with his team.

Sakura shifted through her pack once more. "Hmmm… Rolls of bandages, kunai, shuriken, food rations enough to last 5 days… although I'm pretty sure we will make it to Suna in 3 days. Senbon, water canteen, exploding tags. And of course, the document. Well, I'm ready." She paced around nervously, trying to decide what negotiations would benefit best for both villages…

Meanwhile, Shikamaru was at the usual Team 10 barbecue restaurant place. Choji, as usual, was inhaling the food. Ino was scolding him not to. Asuma smoked, the foul smell reaching his nostrils. Ino sighed, then leaned against Shikamaru. "I want to eat, but then I'll get fat. What do you think I should do?" For the infinite time, Shikamaru muttered troublesome, but gently reminded his girlfriend that her body was perfect just the way it was, and she should not worry about anything. Ino snuggled against him, glad to hear that compliment.

Asuma grinned at his students' romance.

Choji continued to inhale food.


	2. Chapter 2

YESSSSSSS FINALLY. ENJOY. :D (I do not own Naruto. Or any characters. T_T)

Chapter 2:

6:55 am the next day, Sakura stood at the gates of the village, impatiently waiting for her teammate. "Ugh, stupid guy. At least come a little earlier!" Footsteps alerted her that Shikamaru was here.

"You're late!" Sakura declared.

"Hmph. it's 7:00 am exactly. You can't say that I'm late because you said to meet at 7:00 am. Actually, I'm right on time." Shikamaru scoffed.

Sakura scoffed, but Inner Sakura was saying furiously about how he totally burned us, that smartass.

They traveled in silence for the first half of the day, stopping at noon to eat lunch and to discuss the negotiations.

"I was thinking this. Konoha and Suna will agree to be allies. This means that both villages could ask for help whenever from the other village right?" Sakura thought out loud. "More like requesting for help. If it is asking, then both Suna and Konoha have the right to not give any help." Shikamaru amended.

"Then what's the difference between asking and requesting?" Sakura exclaimed. "When you ask for something, the person you ask can say no. When you request something, it is more like a demand, but politely." Shikamaru explained patiently.

Sakura blinked once, then twice, while Inner Sakura was just on the floor with an X on her face, from all the brainpower she was trying to use. Shikamaru smirked at the expression on Sakura's face, then started to gather their things.

"Alright, if we want to get at least a third was to Suna by night, I suggest we start going." Sakura snapped out of her daze, and helped him to pack the things.

They traveled until the evening, in which then Shikamaru located a suitable place to set up camp. A small cave nearby a river with good foliage.

Shikamaru rolled out the sleeping bags while Sakura set up the fire and caught some fish. "I know that we have food rations, but I think that you and I both know that fresh fish are much better," she said. Shikamaru did not argue.

After dinner, Sakura snuggled into her sleeping bag. "Hey! I thought you got first watch?" Shikamaru joked lightly. "Mmm… you get first watch. It'll do good for you. Lazybones."

Shikamaru sighed, and muttered "troublesome". He then rested comfortably against the mouth of the cave, with the dying embers of the fire providing light beside him.

Sakura murmured goodnight, and then closed her eyes. When Shikamaru was sure that she was asleep, he went into his thinking pose.

"Hmm.. negotiations… benefits for both villages?" He then sighed, and broke out of his thinking pose. "Too troublesome. I'll just star-watch then." So he then proceeded to lay on his back and watch the stars until Sakura's turn to watch. But then there was a slight rustle in the leaves.

He fingered a kunai, and lazily turned his head towards the bush. In his head though, he was going through a hundred scenarios and strategies.

As the rustling grew louder, he tensed his hand, preparing to throw the kunai. Then he relaxed slightly. "Tch… just a rabbit" Looking at the moon, he calculated the time, and concluded that 4 hours had already passed, with around 4 or 5 hours until dawn.

He went into the cave and gently shook the sleeping roll of pink hair. "Hey Sakura... hey… wake up…" Sakura stirred, then sleepily batted away Shikamaru's hand. "Just… a couple more… minutes…" Sakura mumbled with a yawn.

Shikamaru felt himself yawning too. "Come on Sakura. I took over more than half of the watch just to let you have some sleep. It's my turn. A lazy guy needs to sleep you know?"

"Fineeeee" Sakura whined. She struggled to get up, and then rubbed her eyes. She lazily walked over to the mouth of the cave and sat down quietly cross-legged. Looking back, she could see that Shikamaru had already settled into the sleeping bag, and was already breathing deeply. "Night Sakura…" he sighed.

Sakura smiled in return, then settled with reading medical texts Tsunade had lent her. After 2 hours of cramming information about healing jutsus, bandages and whatnot, Sakura decided she had enough. Closing the thick book in front of her, she sealed it back into the portable tiny scroll, a gift from Shizune.

She then settled on meditating, concentrating her chakra on her forehead.

Just as the sun peeked over the edge of the mountain, Sakura shook the gently snoring Shikamaru awake. Shikamaru opened one eye, looked at the grinning Sakura, and flipped over to his side to continue sleeping.

Sakura frowned, then smiled evilly as she thought of an idea. She filled up her empty water flask by the river, then tiptoed back into the cave. Shikamaru was snoring again, and then Sakura promptly poured all the contents of the flask onto Shikamaru's face.

Shikamaru sputtered and sat up quickly. "What the? Why did you do that?!" Sakura smirked, while Inner Sakura was yelling and pumping her fist in victory.

" _YESSSSSS GOT HIM BACK HAH THAT SMARTASS!"_

Shikamaru glared at Sakura. Sakura shrugged and looked at him innocently. "What? It was the only way to wake you up." Then Shikamaru stood up and stalked towards her threateningly.

She backed up out of the cave, when suddenly he threw a kunai at her. The kunai hit a tree behind her, while she jumped backwards, only to land butt-first into the river. She gasped at the sudden splash, then sputtered incoherent words.

Shikamaru only smirked widely, twirling another kunai in his fingers, hair still dripping wet. As for Inner Sakura, well… guess what she was saying.

Yes. Some very nasty swear words that I will not be mentioning.

HI GUYS _. Is this getting too much? I guess I'm spending waaaay to long on their journey. And it seems to be more like Shikamaru and Sakura.

(lll-_-) I'll try to make them get to Suna at the next chapter. Please read and review!

DONUT OVER AND OUT


	3. Chapter 3

They were making a lot of progress on their journey, only stopping once and continuing through the night.

At this rate, Sakura estimated that it would take them only a few more hours to get to the gates of Suna.

Suddenly, Shikamaru stopped, and Sakura nearly crashed into him. "What? Why did you just stop?"

Sakura whispered. Shikamaru held a kunai in his hands.

"You mean you can't sense them?" he whispered back.

As she concentrated, Sakura could make out four people.

They were masking their chakra well, but for a highly trained ninja like her, she still could make out where they are.

"They surrounded us" Sakura whispered. "They are not highly trained. And I want to avoid bloodshed." Shikamaru whispered back.

"Then lets simply knock them out." Sakura grinned.

Shikamaru smirked, then sent out his shadow to capture the four people.

As they walked out into the clearing below them, they were clearly struggling hard and trying to resist the shadow, but Shikamaru had a firm grip.

"Now got do your monster strength thing" Shikamaru said to Sakura.

"Turn them around first so they don't see me." Shikamaru complied.

Sakura went down without a noise, and with one tap of her fist, had them all sprawled on the ground.

"Interesting…" Shikamaru observed. "Oto nin? Why though?"

Sakura shrugged "Probably having some kind of grudge against Konoha, or they don't want two great shinobi countries to be allied. Or, Orochimaru wanted to capture us"

Sakura scanned them for any information or valuables, and almost didn't find any, but at the last moment her eyes strayed to the slight bulge in ones shirt.

She reached her hand out, then bit her lip, and quickly lifted his shirt up.

Then she snatched the object and pulled the shirt down blushing hard.

Shikamaru began to smirk at her, but it dropped as he saw the object.

It was an Akatsuki ring.

How would an ordinary Oto nin have the ring of an Akatsuki member?

Shikamaru took it from her hands and examined it carefully.

"Maybe its store bought?" Sakura said halfheartedly.

Inner Sakura scoffed "Tch, who would replicate an Akatsuki ring? Who would even manage to take a look at them and survive?"

Shikamaru said with an even tone "Perhaps one of the members did this on purpose. Anyways, we have to get going to Suna."

He tucked it away in one of the many pockets on his jonin vest, and off they went.

Unknown to them however, only a few meters away, Uchiha Itachi was suppressing his chakra very well. He smirked, then teleported to the Akatsuki hideout. "Well, the plan is in action...

Time Skip

At late afternoon, they had reached the gates of Suna.

The guards stopped them, demanding to know who they are and what they purpose is.

Sakura declared that they were ninja and are the ambassadors for the village negotiations.

This seemed to satisfy the guards as they let them in.

An escort led them through the buzzing streets of Suna, but not before giving them each a scarf.

Sakura expertly styled it around her head, leaving only her eyes open.

Suna had windy weather in the middle of the desert, so sandstorms got stirred up very easily.

Even without a standstorm, the streets blew sand this way and that, getting into the civilians and ninjas eyes.

Life in the desert was tough, and that was what made Suna ninja famous.

The sandstone building of the Kazekage "tower" loomed up upon them, a large, round building where meetings were held and where the Kazekage usually resided during the day.

As the doors opened, a large chandelier and beautiful marble steps that led up to the second floor greeted the ninja.

What amazed Sakura the most though, and would every time she visited, were the mosaics of the ocean covered the floor, giving the room a slight blue tint.

Waves and fish were decorated with bright colors.

There was no time to admire though, as the escort was quickly walking away.

The escort led them up the marble steps, through some hallways, up another flight of stairs, another left, and finally stopped in front of two official looking doors.

The escort knocked. Inside, a faint but serious voice said "Come in."

The office itself was not that all that impressive, but the view it offered was breathtaking.

Sakura turned to the window just as the sun went below the horizon, in time to see the houses light up in brilliant shades of gold, yellow, and red.

Although she did not gasp, for once, Inner Sakura was sitting back peacefully and enjoying what was placed in front of her.

"Now that, is a view" Inner Sakura commented inside her head.

While she was gawking at the window, she didn't notice that the Kazekage had walked in front of his desk and tripped over her feet.

She gasped, and braced herself for the impact, but it never came. Instead, she found herself in a pair of strong arms...

She blinked, as a face was very close to her own.

Those eyes… They were mesmerizing.

The color was beautiful, like the artist couldn't quite decide between white, blue, or green.

They had not pupils, and she felt herself lost in them.

She didn't know she was leaning closer until her nose brushed against his.

Then she blushed.

Then she awkwardly stumbled out of his arms backwards and apologized over and over, the blush never leaving her face.

"Um... ahh! Sorry Kazekage-sama! I'm - I'm so sorry!"

Sabaku No Gaara, otherwise known as Gaara of the Sand and the renowned Kazekage looked at her and only said "Hn."

This made Sakura flinch and Inner Sakura scoff "He may be all high and mighty but that doesn't mean that he needs to disrespect us!"

Shikamaru yawned. "Alright, this is getting too awkward for my taste and troublesome. Kazekage-sama, you do know why we were sent here right?"

Gaara found himself staring at the pink haired kunoichi.

He snapped out of his stupor and cleared his throat while brushing his hands together.

"Yes. Negotiations. I believe you have both files?"

Shikamaru rummaged around in his pack while Sakura took out the scroll fairly quickly.

"The advantages of being organized." Inner Sakura smirked.

Shikamaru sighed. "Everything is put into my pack last minute. Packing is too troublesome."

Sakura scoffed.

Shikamaru paused and looked at her. "Its called being smart. Finally. Found it."

The two Konoha nin handed both their scrolls to Gaara. He walked around his desk and set the scrolls down.

Then he sat down. He put the his chin in his hands and asked "How long will you be staying here?"

Shikamaru and Sakura answered at the same time "Two weeks".

Gaara continued. "Then I am sure there is plenty of time for the negotiation discussions. I would like you to have dinner with me tonight. A guide will show you your rooms, and then he will show you the restaurant. Are there any questions about the schedule?"

Sakura timidly asked, "Is there a dress code?"

Shikamaru let out a sound that sounded something in between a bark and a laugh.

Gaara smirked. "Yes Haruno, Nara. You have to dress formally. After all, you are going to be dining with the Kazekage and his siblings."

Shikamaru groaned. "Great. Does that mean I have to wear a kimono?" Gaara nearly smiled.

"I was going for more of the traditional wear like a kimono, but a suit and tie would be fine. I will be wearing one."

Shikamaru seemed relieved at that notion. Gaara nodded. Then he looked at the scrolls and waved his hands.

"Dismissed. I hope to see you two soon."

The Konoha nin walked out the door, not before bowing respectfully.

The guide that they had seen before led them through the maze of hallways and stairs, out the Hokage building, and to an modest inn, which they were going to stay for the duration of the negotiations.


End file.
